Saudi Arabia: uneasy friend or likely foe?We'll never claim to be experts on foreign policy. We still haven't figured out some policies within our own borders. So, we'll usually defer to others on many issues abroad. But we're confident in offering an opinion on one piece of this nation's foreign policy puzzle: With friends like Saudi Arabia, we don't need any more enemies. Some officials have gone to great lengths to contend that Saudi Arabia is an ally, a helpful partner in our war ...

Let's call lotteries as they areWe're all for many types of fund-raising projects. If the Girl Scouts want to sell cookies, they'll do well to stop by the office. (We're especially partial to those little shortbread numbers.) If the fire department wants to have a fish fry, pass the ketchup. If the church youth group wants to wash cars and trucks all Saturday, they'd do a better job of washing the ride than we would anyway and at a bargain price to boot. Those are all worthy...

Are schools for athletics or academics?School spirit. Community pride. Local identity. All great things, right? Sure. Worthy sentiments and concepts, right? Absolutely. Ideals to encourage, right? Without doubt. But are school spirit, community pride and local identity goals that should override even one child's future? No. No amount of rah-rah feelings based on an athletic team is worth the cost of a student's unfulfilled life. Yet opponents of consolidation often list athletics a...

Finding freedom in RussiaGood news on the freedom of information front came from an unexpected place Monday - Russia. President Vladimir Putin vetoed measures approved by Russian lawmakers that would have severely restricted media coverage. The proposals would have kept news organizations from reporting on various anti-terrorism activities. They would have also limited coverage given to opposition groups. These things they would have done in the name of protecting the...

Opportunity now at handThe next 13 months will likely include lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth at the Capitol, but this week's state Supreme Court ruling that the state's public education system is inadequate and unequitable may ultimately be the force that propels this state upward and forward. Legislators have no choice but to improve schools. Accomplishing that goal will likely involve a combination of efforts. First, they'll have to find much more money. We...

Constantly living with fearIn the days immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, many editorialists wrote that these United States would never be the same. What all those writers meant by those words is certainly open for interpretation. We hoped that somehow the catastrophic events of that day might bring the people of this nation together, unite them in ways that hadn't been seen in a couple generations. It was clear, though, that those words could also mean that we would...

Gas prices causing big crunchRemember when two plant closings in Morrilton reverberated throughout the Arkansas River Valley? Working families felt the effects in Pope and Yell counties because many people drove the half hour to Morrilton each day to work. It's just a fact that lots of folks drive significant distances to work. And what's an ever-changing constant in that routine? Rising gasoline prices hit those folks' pocketbooks hard. Gasoline prices across the nation ...

Council mixes new and oldRussellville's City Council has certainly changed in recent years. The tenor has remained about the same, but several faces have come and gone. Several more will come and go in a couple months, when the latest incarnation of the city's legislative body takes control. Who are these folks? n Ward 1, Position 1 - Cliff Kirchner, one of the council's elder statesmen, from an experience standpoint. He's a consensus builder and compromiser (good thi...

Strange pair lobbying for state, jobsIf Arkansas fails to land a Toyota automobile manufacturing plant that the Japanese company is reportedly considering for Marion, it won't be because of a lack of name recognition. Bill Clinton, former leader of the free world, pledged earlier this week to lobby Toyota on the state's behalf. Americans' opinions of Clinton run a wide spectrum. Many people like him. Many people despise him. Around the world, though, Clinton's stature is markedly...

Olin Cook: Victim of term limitsWe've never been a fan of term limits. Perhaps it's because we believe that voters have the power to limit terms, and there's plenty of proof to support that notion. Just ask Bill Alexander, former 1st District representative. A relative unknown, Blanche Lambert, defeated him after he had been in Congress for nearly three decades. Or George Bush. Up for a second presidential term in 1992, the nation instead chose another relative unknown, Bill...

Campaigns sunk to new lowsPlease, no runoffs. Please, no runoffs. We're not certain we can stomach more campaigning. And at the rate this year's campaigns deteriorated from run-of-the-mill rhetoric to just out-and-out sleaze, a few more weeks of the posturing may end in fisticuffs. Some of the worst offenses came in the waning days of this election season, and one of them was right here in Arkansas. As of Sunday night, voters across this state were able to access campa...

Make your best vote really countIf you go to the polls Tuesday, keep in mind that politicians have told you a lot in these past few weeks and months that have seemed like years and eons. They've told you that they're for this and against that. They've told you that their opponents are for something else and against what you hold dear. They've told you what they'll do and have sworn to things they won't do. They've told you that they'll uphold this principle and run that conc...

Weighing individual, societal rightsAre citizens of these United States individuals, free to pursue life, liberty and happiness on their own? Or are citizens of these United States members of a society unlike any other on the planet, a republic based on the notion that we're somehow all in this together? The answers to those questions may or may not be too obvious, but they become so when we decide how to view the dicotomies that exist all around us. Taxes, for example. Who like...

Sunday topic: ElectionsReaders who want the skinny on politics in the Arkansas River Valley and in the state will want to get their hands on a copy of Sunday's edition of The Courier. In addition to pages and pages of information on state candidates and ballot proposals, we'll publish a special section on local races, which will include sample ballots from Pope, Yell and Johnson counties. We're calling the section an election "guide." We define "guide" as a source o...

Vote for Amendment 2Arkansans historically have scarcely tinkered with the state Constitution. That's why many portions of the document, fine for their day and time, contain antiquated directives and policies. Proposed Amendment 2 would change some of them, and voters should support those simple changes on Nov. 5. The proposal would accomplish several things, some of them not too important in the context of most people's lives - such as spelling out that the lieu...

Let's keep vote system in placeAny time someone tries to change the way we vote, there's sure to be a ruckus. Proposed Amendment 1 is no exeption. The initiative that will be on the Nov. 5 general election ballot would repeal a provision of another amendment that compels elections officials to print ballots and keep records in such a way so as to tie a particular ballot to a particular voter. The proposed amendment would do away with that system, thereby ensuring vote secre...

State's future uncertain as crises loomThis state's aginners may well find themselves in unprecedented territory in a few months. You know the aginners - they're against everything, not really for anything. They offer only complaints, no answers. They wish not to solve problems as much as to gripe. And if two things happen in coming months, boy, will they have a lot to gripe about. If voters decide on Nov. 5 to eliminate the state sales tax on food and medicine, state and local gov...

Progress 2002 draws to closeSundays in October mean lots of things. Football. Chilly mornings and cool evenings. Drives through the mountains to look at colors that herald in another season. For us, Sundays in October mean that we publish sections of our annual look back at the year, Progress. Our final installment of Progress 2002 is in today's edition. It highlights community activities and groups and commerce around the region. The section is 48 pages of stories, phot...

Money crisis looms for stateIn a surprising move, the state Supreme Court has agreed to let voters decide a measure to remove the state sales tax on food and medicine. The decision, handed down Thursday, is surprising because the court has in recent years taken it upon itself to save the state from itself. Whenever a thorny issue came up, we could always count on the court to toss the thing off the ballot, thereby saving the state's leaders from having to deal with the r...

Elections folks pretty darn good at doing jobsWe point an accusatory finger from time to time at some of our elected officials in Pope County. And why not? From ignoring rules and regulations to thumbing their noses at desperately needed projects, some of our "leaders" have their constituents headed down the wrong paths. But, one area in which this county's elected overseers of the public trust excel most of the time is in the process of putting on elections. Not too often do we have a pr...